Astrology's Four Elements

Actually Western astrology used square charts until sometime after the 17th century. I know Lilly's book written in the mid 17th century still had them.

Once you get used to it it's pretty easy. I prefer the round ones though for a variety of reasons. I think the aspects are easier to see in a round chart.

 

The round ones seem more appealing because they correspond to the Earth which is round. The actual chart in the center is representative of the Earth for those who don't know.

 

speaking of which is earth used in a chart, as it is always opposite the sun? and does earth have the same symbol as the part of fortune?

 

Yes they are both symbolised by an x in a cirlce. I don't know if I would say the Earth and the sun are always opposite, but I really don't use the Earth in interpretation.

What do you know about the vertex? I have seen it work in predictive astrology at an Astrology Conference, and it amazed me how accurate you can pinpoint events with it by using the moons declination. I understand that the software, Solar Fire, can calculate the moons declinations as a graph which is helpful for prediction.

 

That's part of traditional astrology I think. I haven't learned that part yet.

One thing I just read today that I thought was interesting is that in ancient Greece, the house system we use today was used a lot, but what was used even more often was the parts system also called the "lots".

Apparently the part of fortune was like the ascendant in that system and then they put certain other lots in a certain order at 30 degree intervals to create another kind of horoscope.

I need to find out more about this.

 

Do you mean the Arabian Parts? The Part of Fortune is an Arabian Part. It came out of Persia. You take the degrees of certain points like the Asc. or MC, and in a 360 degree chart you plus or minus degrees of other angles or planets to get an Arabian Part. It has fallen out of favor now, and only the Part of Fortune is still mainly used.

I guess that system you are talking about is where the phrase,"your lot in life", came about. It's sort of like your fate or "lot".

 

Yep those are the ones. There are zillions of them, but I'm not sure which 12 would have been on the chard except for the parts of fortune and spirit which is opposite the part of fortune.

I forgot to call them the Arabian parts. My brain just wasn't going there for some reason.